Mega Man and Bass: Frenemy Mine
by Waxing Shadow
Summary: When a mysterious captor kidnaps Dr. Wily, it's up to Mega Man and Bass to partner up once again to stop this new threat and save his arch-nemesis!
1. Brawl in Light's Lab

_20XX... One day in 200X, A man by the name of Dr. Albert Wilydecided totake over theworld by taking control of the robots of Dr. Light, a fellow scientist and world-renowned robotics expert. At the behest of one of his creations, Rock, he made the decision to turn the robot into the super fighting robot known as Mega Man. Many battles ensued._

 _Many friends and enemies would be encountered. Many robots would fall victim to his mighty Mega Buster. And when it seemed like the fighting would never stop..._

 _It did. Wily had gone quiet for quite a while, in fact._

 _Not that Dr. Light, Rock, and his sister, Roll missed the fighting... Rock did so reluctantly in the first place, so it was a chance to get back to being a somewhat normal family again._

 _Until..._

 **Dr. Light's Lab: 8:00 a.m.  
**

Rock hummed a familiar tune as he gathered the scraps from the latest tinkering his creator had been undertaking. Civilian life had been esppecially relaxing to him, especially after something like the "Roboenza" incident. As the robot boy walked past Dr. Light's workbench, he asked,

"What is it you're working on anyway?"

The scientist looked up from his soldiering for just a minute. "I'm working on a special titanium alloy. In theory, it would be able to support a far more extensive degree of... 'abuse', let's say, than even you can currently."

"Okay..." Now Rock was curious. "Did the government commission you to create another helper robot or something?"

He hesitated for a moment. "Er... no. Actually, this project is a bit bigger than that. In fact, this one won't be seeing the light of day for quite a while."

"Dr. Light, breakfast is ready!"

The call, of course, came from Roll, housekeeping robot and Rock's sister. She was in an apron holding a batter-coated wisk.

"I'll be over in a moment, Roll." He turned to Rock. "Can you put those scraps in the recycling bin?"

"Oh, right. I'll get-"

A round of bullets hit the door in Rock's line of sight with enough force to blast him off of his feet. He landed on his stomach, scraps scattering on the chrome flooring.

The newfound hole in the wall revealed a purple and black robot. It was none other than Mega Man's rival, Bass!

"Bass? What are you doing here?" The scientist couldn't hide his surprise at the break-in.

"You shut up!" Bass pointed his Buster at Dr. Light, then Roll before rounding on Rock. "Where's Dr. Wily?!"

"I...don't...know..." Rock said, struggling to his feet. "You sure he's not with you?"

"Hmm..." The black robot seemed to debate this point briefly before making his decision.

"Liar!" He aimed some pellets at Rock, which he barely managed to dodge out of the way of.

Left with no choice but to fight back, Rock pressed the button on a watch-like item on his arm and transformed into the Blue Bomber known as Mega Man.

"How many times do I have to tell you, Bass? We are not enemies!"

"Shut up and fight me!"Several more volleys followed. Luckily, Roll managed to get her creator out of the line of fire. Mega Man wasn't so lucky as he took some rather unfriendly fire as he tried to slide out of the way.

"Bass... Why don't you understand? We don't have to fight like this!"

More shots followed in response.

"We could be friends! I don't care if Wily created you!"

Bass stopped to scoff at the enemy robot. "Friends... With you? Ha! I'd much rather beat you and prove I'm the world's strongest robot!"

More battle ensued until...

"QUIET!" Roll's voice rang through the damaged lab, giving pause to both combatants. "You said you were looking for Dr Wily?"

"Where is he?" Bass asked, retracting his arm cannon but keeping his fist balled.

"We can help you find him..." Dr. Light added, "...if you'll let us.

The robot raised his hand, and the trio around him jumped in fright. However, he simply grumbled and crossed his arms. "The sooner I can find him, the better..."

 **About an hour later...**

"Now, Bass," Dr. Light began, looking at his computer. "Where did you last see him?"

Bass appeared deep in thought. "The old man said something about constructing some new Robot Masters with some guy's help."

"Who could that be?" Roll questioned.

"Beats me. I'm usually doing target practice on dummies of the blue twit while pops is off throwing his weak little toys at the real thing."

The elderly scientist stroked his beard. "Hmm... Well, we can't get a good lead without any info..."

Suddenly, a transmission broke through on his computer. What was revealed was merely a figure encasesd in shadow.

"Hello, Mega Man." The voice, though distorted, sounded oddly young.

Everybody knew that this was what... or who... they were looking for.

"I've taken Dr. Wily. Now, I know that you can't let that slide due to your strong sense of justice and all that."

Mega Man unflinchingly looked straight ahead at the screen.

"In that spirit," the voice continued. "I've gone through the trouble of making and strategically placing 8 of my own Robot Masters at different places throughout the city. Check it out."

A screen showing the affected areas came up briefly before cutting back to the figure.

"You might want to hurry, Mega Man. Wily won't last much longer!"

The screen now cuts briefly to a scene of an uncounsious Dr. Wily in a cage.

"Oh, and Bass..." He continued after a pause. "I think it's absolutely adorable that you love your daddy enough to go rescue him." The last sentence was spoken in a tone so mocking that Bass raised his Buster to shoot the screen only for Mega Man to catch his arm before he could.

After an evil laugh by the shadowy figure, the screen cut off.

The black robot growled and shook himself free from the restraining grip. "I'll put some holes in that idiot!"

The trio watching him was shocked by the blluntness of his statement.

Laugh at me, will he..."

He dashed to the teleporter before anyone could stop him and headed off to the highlighted area.

I need to help, too, Dr. Light!" Mega Man's eyes shone with fierce determination.

Dr. Light gave an affirmative nod. "Indeed, you do. Good luck, Mega Man."

Mega Man headed for the teleporter and Bass' location.

...

 **In a Secret Lab...**

An evil laugh reverberated throughout the building, waking up the evil scientist, Dr. Wily.

"It's gone all according to plan. Mega Man will be mine,"

The one emitting the laughter, a portly teenager with glasses, gloated as Dr. Wily came to.

"Yeah? Well your laugh's really irritating..."

The boy glared at him "Yeah? Well nobody asked you! I'll conquer the world better than you ever could, old man!"

"Good luck with that! I've tried over a dozen times," Wily snapped back before muttering under his breath, "Kids these days..."

* * *

 **Well, there you have it! The first chapter of "Mega Man and Bass: Enemy Within!" I'd love to hear your thoughts!  
**


	2. Ten-Hut! Vs Soldier Man!

**Abandoned Military Training Facility** **10:00 a.m.**

Mega Man touched down in the midst of a pouring monsoon drenching what looked like a 19XX -style army camp. He had to wonder what any robot would want in a place like this. He knew two things, though: he had to find Bass and he had to put an end to this... whatever this was.

As if in answer, an ancient intercom squeaked, following with a cold, practiced voice, one befitting a trained killer.

"If it isn't Rock Light, otherwise known as Mega Man."

The Blue Bomber would have went pale had he been human. Not many knew Mega Man's identity as Dr. Light's son and helper robot (the reason being, actually, that few really cared to ask outside of certain reporters and the government).

As if the owner of the voice could see the look on the robot's face, it continued, "It's a soldier's duty to do recon on his targets. You're a fighting robot, Rock. You should know this."

Rock himself never liked this subject. He was a _peacekeeping_ robot, not a war machine! He changed the subject. He needed to.

"Where's Bass?"

His shout at the sky got a chuckle in response. "Oh, Albert's toy? He already ran off, the undisciplined 'bot he is. He's already doing the obstacle course I sent him on with a 15 minute time limit. Of which there are only five minutes left now."

"What?!"

Another chuckle. "Better get going, Ol' Blue."

 **2 Minutes Later...**

After 120 seconds of spiked tire traps, landmine death runs, and a wall that literally chased him while shooting out laser tripwires, he made it to Bass, currently on his way to a cave at the end of the maze.

"Bass!"

"Hmph. It's about time," the black robot replied irritably.

"I've been looking all over for you," Rock said, truly concerned.

Bass ignored this and stepped further into the cave, unknowingly heading towards a landmine. Rock acted fast, tackling his rival out of the way.

Bass was not pleased. "What was that for? Get off me!"

"You should be thanking him."

The familiar voice echoed throughout the cave. Both robots looked around for their target anxiously with Busters drawn.

"He just bought you a few more minutes in one piece... or seconds... however long. Regardless, it will all be over soon."

Just then, a blockage of some sort closed off their only escape by foot, as well as shutting out their only source of light.

Rock got scared and tightened his grip on his weapon.

Bass just got angry. "Get out here, coward! Face me like a man!"

The enemy laughed humorlessly. "No. I think I'll just stick around here and pick you off, one by one."

A shot from nowhere hit Mega Man's arm, sending him reeling. Bass sent a volley of shots at the area he thought the shot came from, briefly lighting it up, but not hitting the target.

BEEP-BEEP!

As he was circling around with his shots, Mega Man tripped one of the landmines, blowing him off his feet in a plume of fire. Bass used the light to get a look at his surroundings--and a few shots at a revealed and distracted green robot decked out in army gear: Soldier Man.

"Not bad," the Robot Master admitted. "I guess I'll just have to switch tactics."

Bass pulled Mega Man's still smoldering body off of the ground. To Bass' obvious surprise, Mega Man smiled weakly. "A bit late."

Mega Man's rival was, for once, at a loss for words. "G-go. Get going! We got this clown's butt to kick!"

Both robots' expressions turned fierce as the burning foliage and smoke provided the only light in the room around them.

A blur of motion darted past the duo. They shot at nothing. Another blur. Nothing. Finally...

"Oof..." Bass found himself underneath Soldier Man's Buster. Seconds before a fatal blast, Mega Man kicked the enemy off of him and quickly shot him until he exploded.

"I almost had him," Bass complained as he picked up a piece of the enemy's broken body to absorb an ability from.

"Sure..." the Blue Bomber was nonchalant as he picked up his peice and an important-looking key.

"I'm serious."

"I know, I know..."

Bass teleported out just before Mega Man, leaving behind the smoldering cave for good.


	3. Always Been a Loner

_Both heroes warped down to Light Labs to get their weapons as well as some quick repairs..._

"So, this weapon is..." Rock began, shifting somewhat uncomfortably as his dents were buffed out. Roll had gotten done cleaning and now looked on in worry. A less injured Bass refused Light's repairs on principle. He was still Wily's robot, after all...

"Soldier C4," the scientist began. "This weapon can stick onto walls or ceilings and explode either on command or after a few seconds."

The doctor then looked back at Bass. "Are you sure you don't want any repairs?"

A scoff was his response.

He sighed deeply and straightened out the creases in his coat. "Bass, why can't you see that we're trying to help you."

"I don't need your help. I don't need anyone!"

"What about in the cave back there?" Rock piped up. "If I hadn't been there when Soldier Man was on top of you..."

"He got lucky," the rogue robot remarked bitterly.

"Hey!" Roll chided, irritated with Bass' ingratitude. "You should at least thank him for saving your life, you know!"

He scoffed. "I would've been fine..."

Finally finished with Rock's repairs, he looked up at Bass, not with any malice or misgiving, but with a deep sense of longing.

"Sometimes, Bass..." He paused to take a deep breath. "Sometimes, I truly wonder about you. Wily may have built you, but he certainly underestimated how smart you were." He motioned to Rock. "Even way back when he broke out of prison, you took it upon yourself to tail my son through that adventure and even up to now.

"You have no problem acting on your own in trying to prove your 'superiority to my son, as if that was ever what this was about, by trying to hurt him..."

Bass raised an eyebrow. "What's your point, old man?"

"You are capable of independent thought, despite your allegance to Wily. Maybe you should think about using that incredible brain of yours to get help when you need it."

Both Rock and Bass began to walk off to teleport to their next destination.

"Give the ramblings of this 'old man' some thought," he said as the teleporters warmed up and sent both heroes off to the Cheese Factory.

As the scientist watched them leave, he asked Roll, "Am I... am I just going senile?

"You mean with trying to help Bass? I don't know..."

"How do you feel about him, Roll? Be honest."

"I..." Her eyebrows knit together in strain. She rarely had a bad word to say for anyone. "I don't like him. He's always hurting my brother and destroying the lab. If you see something in him, though..."

 _Who am I to argue?_


	4. Not-So Cheesy Victory! Vs Cheese Man!

**Cheese Factory** **: 11:00 a.m.**

Vast mountains of cheese and mechanization greeted Mega Man and Bass as they touched down at their next destination. As with the previous stsge, the finned robot took off almost immediately, blasting away mice-like enemies along the way.

"Bass! What're you doing! Come back!" Mega Man's cries fell on deaf ears, and with a frustrated sigh, he took off himself.

After dodging a round of white cheddar spikes (which he assumed to be as deadly to him as the metallic variety), Bass double jumped over a series of bottomless pits before coming to a indoor section shaped like a cheese wheel.

"Really? Let's get this over with."

Stepping inside, he found a giant, muscular mouse bot carrying a hammer made of swiss cheese.

It roared about as loudly as a mouse possibly could before swinging its weapon. After missing its target, it tried to lunge at Bass directly. It got a face full of purple pellets for its trouble.

"Come on, Jerry! I'm just getting warmed up!"

Furious, the mouse swiped its relatively small tail at Bass and missed before inhaling deeply before spitting out a gooey, yellow substance.

Glued to the floor by the stuff, the mouse quickly set to work pummeling the Wily robot.

Bass' screams of pain were loud in Mega Man's ears as he approached the cheese wheel room.

"Bass!"

"Don't you dare interfere, you Blue Brat!" Bass screamed through gritted teeth.

"Are you sure? It sounds like you're losing..."

"Shut up, tin can. I can take care of myself!"

Bass himself was locking hands with the mouse in a test of strength, but was clearly on the losing end.

Just as Bass was going to pass out (albeit unwillingly), A shot blasted his adversary in the shoulder. He didn't even have to ask where it came from.

 _Mega Man... Again...? I must be... really... pathetic..._

Bass trailed off in his thoughts before passing out.

Mega Man, meanwhile did battle with the mouse, careful to step over his fallen partner. The mouse finally met its end smashed to peices against the metal door that was also his route of escape.

After a long period of pulling Bass' unconcious body free of his cheesy bounds, he picked him up and swiftly warped him home to Dr. Light.

Curiously, the door after the mouse led to the boss door, bearing the familiar "Dr. W" logo.

"If it isn't the Beloved Bleu Bomber," A smooth voice echoed throughout the room.

A robot shaped like string cheese popped out of the ground in front of Mega Man.

"Uh... Hi."

"Seems like you're all provolone. It's a shame fish-boy couldn't make an apperence. Well, then again, Chucky was a very sharp opponent..."

"Shut up about my friend!" Mega Man said, getting angry. "And your cheese puns are horrible!"

The Robot Master shrugged his shoulders casually. "You realize he doesn't like you, right? You've gotta work on picking cheddar friends."

Mega Man growled in response.

"Calm down already... Fish doesn't go very well with cheese, anyway."

I said SHUT UP!" Mega Man launched a stream of pellets at Cheese Man.

"You want a fight?" He asked calmly. "Fine. You better bree ready, Mega Man!"

Strafing, Mega Man put a few uncharged shots in Cheese Man's body, but he shrugged it off and launched the same gooey fluid at Mega Man that Chucky had used.

"You're gonna LOVE my Cheese Whiz!"

A loop of the cheese roped Mega Man in for a kick, and the evil robot used it as an oppurtunity to repeatedly slam the blue robot into the ground using the loose strands of cheese on his head as tendrils.

Cheese Man laughed maliciously. "After all these years of whipping the designs of that old pile of parmesan Doctor, you're finally done in by one of the newer cuts off the block!"

Mega Man grunted in pain, but it was far from physical. "Y-your p-puns...hurt...worse than the actual str-strangling."

Luckily, while the two were busy with their exchange, the Blue Bomber had come up with a plan. He'd changed weapons without his enemy noticing and stuck Soldier C4 bombs on Cheese Man's hair tendrils. Now all he needed was a safe way down from his current predicament.

"Hey, what kind of coward are you, anyway?"

Angry eyes looked back up at the bot. "What was that?"

Mega Man kept his ploy going. "Sure, you talk like your some kind of fine cut of mozzarella, but you're really more like Limburger. All style, no substance. And you _stink_ like it, too."

The enemy robot threw him on the ground in anger, giving him enough time to roll away from danger.

"You know what?" the cheese-themed enemy began, beside himself. "I was going to settle for stretching you until you broke into tiny peices. But now, I can't decide whether to dice you, slice you, or outright _shred_ you!"

"Is that so?" Mega Man calmly responded as he got up and dusted himself off. Cheese Man might as well have told him that it was going to be sunny tomorrow.

"Well, yes... Wait. Why are you smiling?"

"Oh, nothing. Just thinking about _my_ favorite type of cheese."

Fear rose in the Robot Master's voice. "What's that...?"

He ejected a detinator button from his Buster and pressed it. "Melted!"

 **BOOM!**

The blasts did critical damage and threw,him against the wall, but the cheese bot simply laughed upin realizing his situation. "Not bad at all. In fact, I'd say..."

His words reverberated throughout the room as he exploded for the final time.

"You're pretty _gouda_!"

Mega Man groaned as he picked up two broken peices of his foe for himself and Bass. He unceremoniously left, with the knowledge that he'd take special care to have his creator delete every single memory of his latest foe's terrible cheese-based puns.


	5. Taking Care of Bass-ness!

Bass groaned as Dr. Light continued to use various vaccums and rags to deal with the cheese lhat had gunked up his systems. Frankly, he was starting to wish he'd never woken up.

"Not so hard!" he growled as the doctor apparently sought to scrub every crevice with a vengance.

"Well, you've got to be more careful," Dr. Light admonished. "You can't just go charging out there recklessly. I'm about the furthest thing in the world from a military tactitian, and even _I_ know that."

He ignored the scientist's two cents. "Why is this even taking so long?"

Roll, who'd seen the black-purple robot's condition upon arrival, interjected as she brought in a scratch buffer. "Does Wily _ever_ bother to actually clean you? That would be a better question to ask."

"Only when he shovels a new 'firmware update' thing in me..."

"When was the last time he did that?" the scientist asked.

"It was about that time I lost to Mega Brat even though I tried some of that purple energy stuff."

"You mean, back when Wily tried to conquer the world with 'Evil Energy', right?"

Bass was formulating a witty retort when "Mega Brat" himself warped in with a peice of the Robot Master he never fought and nothing but concern toward him written on his face. Figures.

"Bass, are you alright!?"

He just rolled his eyes in response.

"Just peachy. Give me that part, so we can get this show on the road."

Dr. Light lifted up one finger. "Not until we perform a diagnostic on you and have given you a clean bill of health."

"Oh, come on!" Bass complained.

"You'd better do what the Doctor says, Bass," Mega Man said. "or you'll be here even quicker--and in worse shape--next time."

"Oh why do you even care, anyway?" Bass practically shouted. "I'm the _enemy_ , remember?"

"Not to us, you're not."

Bass was flabbergasted. "Are you kidding me? You do remember all the times I tried to kill you, right?"

"Yes." Mega Man said, looking kind of confused. "We fought. So?"

Bass would've face palmed had he had the mobility to. "You're hopeless."

"That's where you're wrong," Roll piped up. "It's my brother that _brings_ hope. You should try it sometime instead of being such a combatve grump."

"Aww, thanks Roll," Mega Man said, obviously not hearing the second part of that statement.

Bass wondered at the moment whether robots could get diabetes. "Weapon! What was the weapon you got earlier?"

He stared at Bass blankly for a moment. "...oh, yeah. I got this weapon." His armor changed to a yellow and orange color scheme. "The Cheese Whiz. It sprays a string of cheese, kind of like what's in those little cans, apparently."

"That's it?"

Mega Man shrugged.

"This guy, whoever he is, is an idiot."


	6. I Was a Teenage Evil Genius

**Back in the secret lab...**

The teenager pounded his fist on his computer (which was actually a laptop) in frustration. He had just watched Cheese Man fall.

"NO! That was my favorite Robot Master!"

The scientist he held captive was far more...relieved.

"Eh, at least that annoying chatterbox is gone. I swear, all those cheese puns were giving me--"

"Didn't need to know that," the boy shot back, not looking at him.

"What are you even going to do, anyway?"

"I've got my _own_ special robot, Gramps. Rap, if you would..."

The old doctor was confused. "Rap?"

A hooded figure stepped out of the shadows. Wily realized on closer inspection that the robot was based on a stereotypical rap artist, complete with gold rings and a chain around its neck.

"Yo." The male robot greeted with a deep voice.

The boy turned to Wily in triumph. "You're surely in awe of my brilliance, are you not?"

"Something like that," Wily mumbled.

"Ha. You're just jealous. Unlike your Bass, Rap is totally loyal to me! With him, I will rule the world and prove myself the _true_ heir to the Wily throne."

Wily waved a dismissive hand. "Yeah, yeah. Do you even know what you're going to do if-- and with Mega Man around, that's a pretty big _if--_ you manage to take over the world?"

A minute or so of silence passed. "Eh, I'll figure it out as I go along." He then laughed uproariously, complete with nasily snorts and coughing at the end.

Wily squeezed his temple as if suffering from a migraine. "Ugh. Even his _laugh_ is annoying!"


	7. Working Things Out! Vs Fit Man!

**Fitness Center: 12:00 PM**

Mega Man really hadn't been thinking very clearly when he entered the teleporter. To tell the truth, he was still wondering how Bass could still consider himself an enemy to him. After all, Mega Man didn't dislike Bass. Why didn't he? That was one answer he couldn't produce.

Touching down, he found himself in what looked like a gymnasium. Something didn't seem right however, as the place was a ghost town, completely devoid of people. What was worse, the place was occupied to the brim with robotic enemies.

The balance beam he appeared to be on didn't exactly encourage sudden movements, as the only thing that would catch him if he were to fall would be an unusually colored pit of spikes, just as lethal as ever.

He made his way to a series of exercise balls that he had to do more balancing on. At times he slipped, having to cling tightly to the ball just to stay on it, not to mention the fact that the later balls moved up and down and had spikes pop out of them occasionally. Thankfully, those weren't lethal for reasons he didn't care to ponder.

After that, and having to do some real gymnastics with much bigger versions of those hoops that gymnasts used, he found himself dropping down into a very small room. Appearing out of nowhere was what looked to be a giant living water bottle with eyes. After Mega Man slid past the robot's attempts to stomp on him and punch him with his spindly fists, it turned red and boiling hot before jumping up and trying to pour out a scolding spray of water on him fortunately for the Blue Bomber, his spray was a only in a straight line. After a few repetitions of this, the bot went down after a few charged shots.

A pathway openedo the right of him which took him outside to a setting that looked like a track and field racetrack. As he went forward, damaging hurdles started to appear. Further, key matters was a giant robot of which he was very familiar: Big Eye. Copies of this robot greeted him as he progressed further trying to make him plow into their big bodies or trying to zap him with lasers. After a very tense time, he found himself At what he assumed was the door to the Robot Master. The room looked like a yoga mat set up, complete with calming music and a beautiful view of the outside city, or at least the part of it that wasn't destroyed.

What he was greeted by was what looked like a muscleman in a blue muscle shirt. It was his voice that caught Mega Man off guard.

"Welcome to my gym, little man," the Robot Master smiled. The voice was incredibly flamboyant, probably the last thing one would think would come out of such a masculine looking robot.

"So, did you come to work out?"

"N-No." He wasn't exactly sure to say to this guy.

"No? Well I'm Fit Man, and it's nice..." He trailed off as a note of recognition seemed to trail across his features. Fit Man smiled warmly. "Oh, you must be Mega Man! I've heard so much about you!"

The blue robot managed to regain his composure enough to look serious. "Then you know how this type of thing routinely ends. I don't want to fight you, Fit Man. Just stop this mayhem and get rid of all the spikes and assorted death traps so people can actually work out here and not die in the process."

"Cute, but sorry little man. No dice. I have my orders."

Fit Man did a muscle making pose, saying, "I want to see how strong you are!"

The battle began with a punching bag coming down above Mega Man which he had to slide under. His adversary punched the bag so hard that it bounced over the room, occasionally producing and retracting damaging spikes as it went. While that was going on, Fit Man lunged at him every so often with a mighty punch as well as some acrobatic backflips. After plugging away at the muscleman with a few charged and non-charged shots, the enemy shifted his battle strategy. The bag went away, replaced with a treadmill appearing out of the floor.

"Now, let's work on your cardio!"

He wound up chasing after Fit Man on a treadmill floor, reminiscent of his encounter with Metal Man from Wily's second uprising. The difference was, instead of Metal Blades, he now had to dodge the hurdles that the enemy sent his way by his punching of the ground. Some more spiked this time, so needless to say, it wasn't fun. Eventually though, he got that last shot in.

Fit Man probably had the strangest last words of any Robot Master he ever faced.

"Be sure to work out at least three times a week!"

After getting Fit Man's weapon, he found a strange gift underneath the remains: a voucher for a year-long membership at the very gym he was in. He would have to keep this around. He didn't have any ideas of how to celebrate Dr. Light's birthday after all.

 **Weapon Get: Fit Flip**

 **(Allows the user to do an invincible back flip. Can bounce off walls.)**


	8. Carnage in the City!

"I'm home, Dr. Light!"

Having freshly teleported from his most recent mission with his rather unorthodox weapon and even more interesting "birthday present" to show for it, took a second for Mega Man to realize that no one was actually in the lab. She had to go into the living room, which was only slightly less technologically enhanced than the lab itself (Dr. Light _really_ liked to invent things), he found them planted on the couch, staring at the TV with rapt attention.

"Roll! Dr. light! What's going on?" Mega Man was more than a little startled at their lack of reaction to his voice. Both of them have looks of horror plastered on to their faces. This was especially disturbing in Roll's case because no matter what mission the Blue Bomber found himself in, he could always count on her to be the optimist in the situation. She still cheered her brother on even when she fell sick with that Roboenza virus.

"Look…" The robot girl said, with more of an inattentive mumble than anything else.

The carnage he saw upon looking at the TV was indescribable. Overturned cars littered the streets and fires walled off sections of the city, turning the entire sky into a gray, ashen mess. The camera panned over to show none other than Mega Man's older brother, Proto Man (otherwise known as Blues). His sunglasses were cracked, marring his normally cool appearance. His scarf was ripped to shreds that still hung off of his neck. His body itself was full of dents. Dr. light first creation was clearly at the end of his rope, as his normally sly grin had been replaced by one of abject frustration. He fired shots mercilessly at an unseen target, causing an explosion.

"Give it up already!" The red warrior announced exasperatedly. "Wherever you came from, you're going back. So you've got a choice. You can go back in one piece, or in _pieces_. You decide."

A devious chuckle erupted from whatever Proto Man had been looking at.

"Go? But I ain't done playing yet!" A gold chain erupted from the smoky blackness of a fire- consumed tractor-trailer. It caught Proto Man before he could slide out of the way, and slammed into the ground. Just the mere sight of this made Mega Man want to be able to throw up. Both the Doctor and Roll weren't doing much better.

It got even worse when the camera panned over to show that Proto Man's arm cannon, and arm along with it, had been torn off from the strain.

His tormentor finally showed himself at that moment. A robot modeled after the stereotypical African-American rapper, with a gray hoodie and a gold chain around his neck. He smirked as he twirled around his chain, moving it from hand to hand effortlessly.

"Man, you're weak!" He said, smiling to himself and shaking his head. "And to think that this is the so-called 'Whistle That Pierces the Darkness' or something." He knelt next to his fallen adversary it started as if to whisper something in his ear and then thought better of it. Instead he dragged a very beaten and frustrated Proto Man towards the camera with him. He looked it dead in the eye, as it were.

"Dr. Light. I know you're watching this. You can call me Rap. I'm just here to issue a friendly little challenge: by all means, I can continue to have my fun with this city, and Mr. Joe Cool, over here…"

The enemy robot lifted up Mega Man's elder brother as if it were a trophy, and said elder brother just grimaced and glared at his enemy in response.

"… Or you can just come out here and surrender. We can send that blue tin can to get his butt kicked. Really, whatever works for you. Pops wants his data anyway."

With one last smile, he smashed the camera in the transmission broke.

The doctor wordlessly turned off the TV. He gave the two he considered to be his children a stern, fatherly glare.

"You're not going out there," he said, mainly to Mega Man.

"What about Blues?" Mega Man said in a rare moment of protest to Dr. Light's wishes.

He turned around, no longer facing the duo. "I'll figure out a way to get him out. I'll barter with whoever's doing this. I'll… I'll…"

Roll was horrified at what he was implying. "You… won't give yourself up to whoever's doing this, will you?!"

The doctor didn't say a word.

"Well?" Roll pressed.

"I'm grateful that at least Bass isn't out there…"

The boy's face twisted up in confusion. "Where _is_ Bass, anyway?"


	9. A Grizzly Situation! Vs Grizzly Man!

**Nature** **Preserve** **1:00** **p.m.** Bass had taken off the second Dr. Light so much as hinted at him being well enough to go out (his exact words were: "Now, you be sure to wait for Mega Man…") Mega Man? Bah. From Bass' point of view, he was perfectly capable of putting holes in things without the so-called help of that baby blue boy scout. How stupid did they think he was?

Before the robot was a dense jungle alive with plant life, both organic and not. Monkey-like enemies cared enough to greet him from the forest's shadows with explosive coconuts while toucans would dive from their nests in the artificial canopies above to spit out seed-like projectiles at him. It was not fun.

Even less so were the boulders that would chase him throughout certain sections of the forest. He'd have to hide like a coward in somewhat conveniently placed inlets to avoid being crushed like a tin can.

Stupid indestructible boulders.

Swinging across some vines and cables made to look like vines, he came to a beehive tucked away in an oversized log. He had endeavored to scout around for locations that would give them away to go around the beehive without tipping off the inevitable. Very unfortunately for Dr. Wily's rather arrogant progeny, all of his dashing around only wound up waking up the contents of the hive. It turned out not to be a swarm of bees, but one giant bee. The thing buzzed, turning angry eyes on the one who awakened him.

"That's a big bee," Bass stammered, more afraid than he was willing to admit. He then shook his head in frustration. What, was he stupid? Even that Mega-Brat wouldn't be afraid of an insect. He would probably take off his wings with a couple charged shots.

What the? Since when did he care about what that blue bucket of bolts did or didn't do? Apparently, not only did he have to be saved twice over by his arch enemy, he had become so desperate that he was pilfering from his strategies, too. For a split second, Bass wondered if his creator had been right to keep trying to reprogram him every time he failed in the past…

In any case, he got to work, skillfully dodging the stingers that his enemy launched his way. It hen swooped down to grab him with its humanlike arms. After dipping under this a few times, Bass realized he could use it to his advantage. The next time around, he slipped a Soldier C4 projectile on the bee's underbelly. The delayed explosion took the avian bug by surprise, sending him down like a shot-down plane.

After getting through that, and tearing apart a couple of cannons disguised as trees, he fell down into an alcove.

It seemed empty… Not a chance.

Sure enough, red eyes poked out from the nearby shrubbery, drawing his fire.

The enemy shot up in fright, still obscured partly by darkness.

A coward, Bass thought. How annoying.

He shot at the enemy again, being sure to follow the red eyes.

"Leave me alone!" It was the cry of a scared child, and not the deadly predator that Bass was expecting, by a long shot.

"Come out and face me," the special robot stammered, more embarrassed than he was willing to admit. He was used to hostility (unless it was Mega Man) from his enemies. Not getting that made him feel… weird.

The creature came out hesitantly into the dim light of the alcove. It was a robot resembling a teddy bear. A peach bare spot adorned its belly, with the rest of its body colored bright pink. It had tiny fangs that poked out of its mouth, one for each side. In most other contexts, it would be downright adorable. The only remotely threatening things regarding this robot was its piercing red eyes and the serrated, brutal looking claws sprouting from its arms.

"You're Bass," the male Robot Master said, sounding still like a child, though now more curious than scared.

"Yeah. What of it?" Bass asked, watching those claws intently for even the smallest movement.

"You're… You're an enemy of Master Wily."

The black and purple robot looked at him as if he'd grown a second head. "What're you talking about? Dr. Wily made me!"

The bear shook his head. "No. I mean the real Dr. Wily, not that fake old man!"

"Excuse me?"

He continued to talk as if he'd not heard him. "He is the real ruler of the world. He already promised to give me a country in the new world order."

"Huh?"

Now he smiled, speaking as if he was talking about a future trip to an amusement park. "Dr. Wily's gonna make all the people in the world bow down to him, and we're gonna live forever as his governors in the Wily Age. We'll only have to bow down to him, and all opposition to him will be destroyed without mercy. Won't it be great?"

For a split second, Bass actually considered this. Then he thought about it more deeply.

"Nope. No one tells me what to do."

"Are you sure?"

"Sure as I'm standing here."

"Okay." His face lost its smile, but his tone was nonchalant. "Then I'll go ahead and rip you to pieces now."

Bass tensed, and found himself face to face with claws before he could blink. Holding them back, Bass placed a kick at his opponent's open midsection. The bear clambered back, managing to swing a kick Bass's way, but missing.

Bass aimed a volley of shots at the bear, but he found that he'd disappeared.

Now, where was he?

He found out too late that he had dug under him, as he caught a savage slash that was enough to send the evil robot flying.

Bass quickly recovered, pointing his Buster down and hitting the bear, apparently catching him off guard.

The bear wasn't fazed for long. He roared defiantly. "I, Grizzly Man, shall destroy you!"

He hardly got any time to digest this new information before he got a surprise. Laser fire, emitted from Grizzly Man's eyes, hit him full force in the chest.

Downed, he flipped up on his feet and took off dashing, messing with the bear's aim as he dodged countless slashes and shots.

"How about this?" Bass switched weapons and shot a Soldier C4 bomb at Grizzly Man's face. It stuck, and while his foe tried to get it off, he seized his opportunity and sprayed him with Cheese Whiz.

Coated with cheese and burned by his being firebombed, Grizzly Man lashed out in anger and pain.

"You big meanie!"

Desperate slashes missed their mark as the bear continued to throw his tantrum. Bass, meanwhile, had had about all he could take of this. He took one opening to hit his opponent with the barrel of his Buster before leaving him with one last one-liner before blowing him to bits.

"Say goodnight, you glorified Care Bear!"

Bass took the part for himself and his arch nemesis and teleported out of the area, though he couldn't get his mind off of one question the bear had left him: Who was this "real Dr. Wily"?

 **Weapon Get:** Grizzly Slash (Creates a damaging slash arcing in front of the user.)


	10. Proto-Crisis!

**Dr. Light's Lab: 3:00 p.m.**

Mega Man still shook as he stood there and watched the continuing broadcast. Proto Man had long left the scene, but his eyes still seemed to be locked to the screen.

He didn't even notice Bass when he came back from his latest mission. In fact, the world seemed to be dead to him until he heard the commotion surrounding his returning brother.

"…might strain it… "

"This looks bad, Doctor! How's he even moving the way he is now?"

Upon realizing what was happening, Rock whirled around, about to launch at his brother and embrace him in a hug. He had to stamp out this instinct when he learned just how unwell Proto Man was.

Rock rushed over to his side. As if trying to ignore his injuries, the scarfed hero spoke for what was really the first time.

"Whatever this 'Rap' character is, he's mean! I wouldn't take lightly anything coming from the man who made him… "

Bass stood in a corner, his arms crossed. "The bear I just fought…he said that whoever's behind this was the 'real Dr. Wily'… He called the Wily we know 'fake'."

"This guy must be really full of himself. That, or really good at his job." Proto Man's sunglasses kept their reflective quality to them, even when cracked.

The scientist finally commented as he was working on repairing his first creation. "I'm curious why he didn't just keep you for ransom. After all, since it isn't beyond the pail of possibility that Albert would kidnap or frame one of us as part of his plans, why wouldn't this 'Wily' do the same?"

"Maybe he wanted to send a message. Human mobsters used to do that all the time."

Light nodded solemnly at the guess. It certainly sounded reasonable, so far as it went. "Some still do that." His features hardened as he looked at the Blue Bomber.

"You need to move out on your next mission, Rock."

"But… " The boy protested.

"I know it hurts to see your brother this way. Unfortunately, more people are put at risk the longer we stand still. We'll all be in touch." He turned to the black and purple robot. "Bass, you follow him."

He grumbled something under his breath, but obeyed.


	11. Wanton Construction! - Construction Man!

Construction Yard: 3:30 pm

Mega Man himself was far too distracted to pick their next destination, so Bass had to take the liberty.

The two found themselves high atop an unfinished network of steel beams and girders. Unfortunately, they would have to climb much further up to reach their target.

The Blue Bomber was still catatonic, but the evil robot quickly fixed that with a slap on the face.

"I'm not here to lug around a robot zombie. Wake up already, you overgrown pea shooter." Bass thought for a moment. "Or don't. I never get tired of hurting you. Feels good."

Mega Man apparently ignored those last two statements. "Sorry." He looked at the impressive height above him. "So Bass, how good are you at climbing?"

"If I just had Treble here to carry me up, we wouldn't be having this conversation," Bass grumbled.

"Treble doesn't even like me…or Roll…or Dr. Light, for that matter."

"Exactly," he replied. "You'd drop to your doom, and you would be out of me and Wily's lives forever."

"That was kind of mean, Bass." The blue hero commented, looking hurt.

The evil bot's mouth fell open in mock astonishment. "You don't say!?"

Before this conversation could be carried on any further, both of them felt rumbling coming from beneath them.

"What the…" Bass took a wary look down, only to discover that the unfinished building was crumbling beneath their feet!

"I guess we better start climbing now!" Mega Man suggested.

The two quickly took off and made their way up the girders. No shortage of enemies met them on their journey, especially a pickaxe enemy that Mega Man could remember from his earliest days.

About halfway up, the two came to a particularly open section of framework. A crane not unlike one of those used in arcades appeared out of nowhere, threatening to throw them off.

The shots necessary to down the machine were tricky, to say the least.

They had to land the final blow at the center of the claw without falling off or being tossed off. Bass' tact for omnidirectional aiming certainly helped, but him having more power to his shots probably would have helped even more. That said, the machine kept the Blue Bomber busy with missiles that were shot out from the "handle" of the crane.

Eventually, they succeeded. Instead of exploding in a blast of flame, however, it simply faded into a holographic nothingness.

Once that was over, the two realized to their chagrin that the ground once again started to fall apart underneath their feet.

With a groan, Bass grabbed his enemy by the hand and double-jumped up some more scaffolding.

Strangely, the enemies disappeared. This left the robots alone, only having the falling debris below to accompany them sound-wise.

"Bass!" Mega Man called at one point.

The purple bot groaned over the noise. "What, weakling?"

"How long have we been climbing?"

"I don't know… Maybe about 10 minutes. Why do you care? Aren't you the one always climbing ladders anyhow?"

"Yeah…"

Had he had the ability, he would face-palm. "Let me ask you a question. WHY ARE YOU SO STUPID?!"

The voice reverberated throughout the oddly crumbling structure.

Mega Man's face became more serious, not that Bass could see it. "I'm not stupid, Bass, and neither are you. You know we're both highly advanced robots. Apologize."

Bass was about to scream again when another voice cut him off before he could make a sound.

"So it was you two makin' all this noise!"

A copter holding a sheet of metal flew down from nowhere. A robot that didn't look too different from a Sniper Joe sat on it cross-legged. His legs and arms were brown, with silver feet and hands. His torso was yellow and he had on a hard hat which appeared to be directly integrated into his design. He had no visible mouth, strangely enough.

He stared down at the two when he got to the last bit of ironwork, which hung mysteriously in the complete vacuum of nothingness.

"Get on," He commanded. "I don't got all day."

Base growled. "Shouldn't you be off building a better mouse trap, 'Construction Man'?"

A yellow and black striped shield and a pickaxe weapon materialized in the Robot Masters hands. "I ought to do more than that. After all, I can't let you stop Lord Wily from building his new world order."

Bass looked thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe, when you beg for mercy, I'll have you build me a statue instead of ending you right away."

"No can do," Construction Man shook his head. Then he shot Bass a dark glare. "How 'bout instead, I use this pickaxe to CHISEL YOUR GRAVESTONE. SLEEP WELL!"

The two protagonists jumped on the suspended metal sheet, ready for battle. The Robot Master flung his weapon like a boomerang. It missed Bass but hit his nemesis, sending him careening off the sheet. Before he could meet his doom, however, he was saved once again by none other than Bass through the recoil of a few well-timed shots and an equally skilled double jump routine.

Mega Man didn't have time to react to this gesture, as their mutual enemy continued to press his attack with alternating tosses of his pickaxe and charging attacks with his shield.

After a few minutes of this, Bass looked around and promptly slapped his forehead. They were on a slab of metal in the middle of the sky, after all.

The next time he charged him, Bass put his foot out, tripping him. He barely had time to register being tripped before falling into oblivion.

"Let's go." He went and took the ability info from the shield left on the slab.

"Bass—" Mega Man stopped mid-sentence when he teleported away, leaving the hero alone.

"Why… why won't Bass admit… that he's a hero…?"

Mega Man stood there, dejected, for a few minutes before casually obtaining his weapon and leaving.

 **Weapon Get** : Chisel Axe – Summons a pickaxe that can be used as a weapon or to build things.


	12. Beachfront Bots! Vs Tour Man!

**Dr. Light's Lab: 5:00 p.m.** The Blue Bomber teleported back into the lab to see, much to his delight, his brother up and walking around.

"Blues, you're okay!"

He shook his head, though with a smile. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. I'm really just itching to get going so I can dish out some serious payback on that Rap guy..."

Bass rolled his eyes. "You ladies can go. I'm getting sick of all this nonsense."

"Now, Bass..." Dr. Light cautioned.

"Let fish boy go cry in a corner if he wants to," the elder robot quipped, waving him off. "He can watch the _real_ heroes do the work. Come on, little brother."

The two went up to the monitor to select their next opponent from their now-slim pickings.

"How about a trip to the beach?" Proto Man asked, clearly suggesting that they take on Tour Man next.

"There could be sharks out there..." Mega Man trailed off.

"Even if there are, I'm sure they'll be nothing we can't shoot down."

Mega Man shrugged in agreement as the took off for their next mission.

 **Picturesque Beach: 5:15 p.m.**

The boys touched down just as seagulls squawked in the midst of the setting sun. Aside from the various killer robots littering the area, this place certainly lived up to the word "picturesque". Proto Man practically had to pull his brother away from the beauty he beheld.

Soon, the beach petered out into a thin strip of sand surrounded by water. Not wanting to test their buoyancy, the two avoided it like the plague. Dolphin robots flew overhead occasionally, spraying acid in lieu of water out of the holes in their heads.

After a while of dealing with this, a battalion of crab enemies, and an encounter with some tree turrets reminiscent of the ones previously found on Wily's abandoned island from the Evil Energy debacle, the two came over to the end of their walkway.

"You don't happen to know how to surf, do you?" Mega Man asked his brother.

"Surf? You've stood on tons of moving platforms before, Rock. In fact, Rush can be _made into_ one!"

"That's different from actual _surfing_!"

"Well, you're going to have to be a quick study!" Proto Man said after a black fin appeared, poking out of some bubbling water.

Mega Man was given a crash course in surfing as not only a giant, sudden tidal wave was chasing them, but a giant black killer whale was looking to get some iron in its diet.

The duo were exhausted by the time they got to shore.

"I told you there would be sharks..." The Blue Bomber puffed out.

"That wasn't a shark. That was an Orca."

"Same difference..." Mega Man retorted as they reached a door to a beachside hotel.

The building was strangely devoid of enemies. In fact, signs plastered all around the hotel pointed the way to the boss, it seemed...

"Be on your guard." The red robot commanded.

A hotel room was to be their battlefield, apparently, as that was where the signs led.

Someone was in the bathroom in the back of the room.

After a few uncomfortable minutes, a voice.

"So, you're here. Glad you could make it."

Out walked a short robot with a rather corpulent design where khaki shorts, a Hawaiian floral shirt (that was too small for him), and sunglasses. He had a grin on his face.

The brothers were unnerved by this to say the least.

"Um... Surrender?" Mega Man almost felt bad for issuing the command. This wasn't a bad guy, was it?

The command was ignored as if it had never been issued. "Tour Man, at your service. Like your little vacation?"

Mega Man shook his head, with Proto Man adding a blunt "No".

"The robot master looked sad. "Well, you must have liked _something_..."

"Well, the acid-spitting dolphins were kind of cool..."

Proto Man almost elbowed his brother for that comment, but instead found himself nodding his head in approval.

"This is just a prototype of Wily Beach, anyway," Tour Man explained. The final product will have a wave pool, a spa, a few water slides..."

Proto Man cut him off. "That beach is never getting built, and you're never getting _rebuilt_."

"Dr. Light _could_ rebuild him as a good tour guide..." Mega Man suggested.

The red robot shrugged. "Sure. Not a bad idea, actually."

Tour Man's smile fell away. "If you don't like the accommodations here, then I must insist that you go on an all expenses paid, one-way trip to the SCRAP HEAP!" But first..."

Tour Man dug around his various pockets and came up with a camera like weapon.

"To immortalize you... In photogenic form, at least!"

The fight started with tour man desperately trying to take pictures of them with his camera-themed death weapon.

Unfortunately for the robot master, he

wasn't exactly in the best shape.

"I guess whoever made you was busy touring the restaurants instead of the gym..." Proto Man quipped as he casually shot at his slow-moving target."

After some time, Tour Man ran out of breath, requesting a "time out" as he caught his breath. He took out a cell phone from one of his pockets and made a call.

Out of reflex, Mega Man shot at him, only for it to bounce off harmlessly.

"Huh."

The enemy got off the phone and grinned deviously. "That's my ride."

Soon, a horn sounded from outside, heralding a giant tour bus to break inside the room, smashing up the room.

The fight flowed downstairs, all the while smashing up the hotel. It was upon getting to the ground floor and Tour Man was racing away to attempt to ram the duo yet again that the Blue Bomber realized that he was going about the fight the wrong way.

"Proto Man! Can you distract him? I've got a plan."

"Fine. Just make it quick."

The next pass saw Proto Man call Tour Man some rather unflattering things regarding his weight to get his undivided attention as Mega Man slipped a Soldier C4 under the bus.

Tour Man charged toward the scarfed hero in a single-minded fury, not knowing that his own bus was now a death trap.

Just as Proto Man and Mega Man jumped out of the way of the next attempt, the bus exploded with the driver still in it.

The hotel was now in ruins as the brothers woke up. A burning Tour Man crawled out of the wreckage of his vehicle and went straight towards Proto Man.

Oddly enough, the Robot Master yelled at him instead of attacking him.

"That was mean, man! What was that for? I try to work out, you know!"

"Sorry. I had to distract you, and that was all I came up with."

Mega Man interjected. "At least you put up a surprisingly good fight..."

"Maybe I should start getting a workout routine from Fit..."

Tour Man literally exploded in mid-sentence.

Each brother grabbed a scrap from the remains, with an extra one for Bass.

"I heard what you said, Blues, and it was kind of mean."

"I'll work on it..." The red robot said casually as they turned to teleport away.

 **Weapon** **Get: Tour Lens- Stuns and damages enemies within its cone of vision.**


	13. Busy Bass! Vs Bee Man!

**Dr. Light's Lab: 6:30 p.m.**

Dr Light gave the pair of brothers an exhausted wave as they came in.

"Are you guys okay?!" Roll fretted, noting their condition. To put it simply, they'd been through a lot.

Proto Man seemed just a little bit irritated when he gave his answer. "Fine and dandy. Now let's finish this, already!"

Bass glared at the duo from his little corner of the room. "There's no way you're leaving me out of this."

The red robot wasted no time getting in his enemy's face. "Oh, _now_ you want to participate? Well, it's a little too late for that, buddy! Rock and I have got it pretty well covered."

Bass scoffed. "Ha! If I wanted to, I could easily take down all of the Robot Masters all by myself."

A smirk formed on Proto Man's face. "Fine, then. Go for it." He looked to everyone else. "You heard the man! Bass will be taking on this next mission solo."

Rock, Roll, and Dr. Light all had their concerns about Bass's safety, which they freely aired.

"I don't remember asking the Peanut Gallery to speak up," the evil robot said, irritated.

The Doctor sighed heavily. "You know, Bass, you're as stubborn as man who built you, and I think we all can attest to how stubborn he is..."

He ignored them and turned towards the monitor. By this point, there were only two stages to choose from. Bass noticibly shuddered upon seeing the creepy castle that played host to Trap Man. He quickly chose his only other option, Bee Man.

He put on a smirk before facing the group. "Watch in amazement as I swiftly remove the stinger from this bee."

"All we've seen you do so far is _talk_ , Bass." Much to everyone's shock, Dr. Light himself was the one to say this. His arms were crossed, but he looked hurt and frustrated more than anything. Proto Man nodded in silent agreement.

"Fine. I'll talk no more." Bass turned to walk over to the teleporter.

"We will be watching you, awaiting your safe return." the scientist said firmly.

"I don't need you to look over my shoulder."

"I may not be able to stop you from going, but you can't stop _me_ from watching over you to make sure you're safe. I've spent my entire life working with robots and humans to make the world a better place. Almost as much, in fact, as your creator works to destroy everything I've worked for and subjugate the world under his heel."

"Boo-hoo."

Proto Man clenched his fists. "Hey, Light. Want me to find fish boy's 'off switch'?"

"Stop it, Blues," The scientist chided, before turning to the black and purple robot. He sighed heavily. "Bass, I don't know if Wily has ever told you this, as that man is _anything_ but a father, but I'm disappointed in you."

Bass turned around to face the man. "Does it look like I care, old man?"

"Yes." Roll was brutally honest. There were nods in agreement all around.

The boy stormed off, in a huff, grumbling about something on the way to his next mission.

 **Honey Hive: 6:50 p.m.**

Bass was deposited into a sticky mess, making a bad day for him that much worse.

He first found himself mowing down a small batallion of Grizzly Man lookalikes. That in itself didn't bother him. In fact, it was kind of theraputic for him.

The real problem was the persistent buzzing that pervaded the entire landscape. It echoed throughout the miles and miles of honeycombs that made a labyrinth around him.

"Stupid beehive," Bass mumbled, trudging along.

Little did the evil robot know, he was being watched.

The boy made his way down through the labyrinth as the sound got louder and louder. He gritted his teeth and covered his audio processors, stopping these actions only to fight the tiny swarming enemies that occasionally mobbed him. He also had to pause to make his way over pits that challenged him even with his ability to double-jump.

At one point, the floor gave way under him, dropping him into a big vat of the sticky substance.

Miserable, Bass picked himself up only to see something forming out of the honey. It was a giant bee carrying a honey wand.

"Leave me alone," the evil robot mumbled as he fired out a Soldier C4 at the thing. Much like the Yellow Devil, it split itself into chunks, dodging the attack with ease.

"You won't make this easy for me, will you?" He fired out bullets from his buster in a spray, to no avail.

The bee actually laughed at Bass.

"Shut up!" He rushed forward before getting stuck in the glue-like stuff.

The bee teleported over and started beating him up with his wand.

Bass growled, getting angrier and angrier until... he smiled. He smiled to realize that when he had just slipped Soldier Man's weapon on the bee's wand, it wound up blowing the wand to pieces and dissolved the form of the creature.

Despite the victory, he felt his vision start to blur as the honey started seeping into his systems.

"It's official. I hate everything." Bass stumbled his way through the obnoxiously loud course, blasting whatever he could until his buster became sticky and unusable.

He just stuck to punching whatever he came across of he didn't avoid the fight altogether.

Until...

"I think I've watched you stumble around here enough for one day."

A robot with a beekeeper's helmet and a bee's torso flittered over to Bass.

"What, you don't have your own arena?" Bass was in no mood for a fight.

"I figured that it would be better for us to settle things out here. I am Bee Man. You know, if you would just surrender to the Wily empire, we could make you a top lieutenant..." He buzzed after every sentence.

Bass said nothing until he started chuckling. That built into a maniacal, almost twisted laugh. It soon echoed almost as loudly as the previous buzzing had.

"What..." the robot master was stunned.

Bass grabbed him by the throat. "Let me show you what I think of you, your worthless hive, your stupid guardian, and your idiotic offer..."

Swiftly, he ripped the bee's wings and stinger off before ramming his buster arm into the his torso and beating it to death. The Robot Master exploded in a blaze of glory.

He was still laughing maniacally as he picked up chunks of the robot to take back to the Lab.

His screech reverberated throughout the hive. as he teleported back.

 **Weapon Get: Honeycomb Drone (fires a set of drones that shoot honey)**


	14. Apparent Traps! Vs Trap Man!

**Dr. Light's Lab: 8:30 p.m.** The good doctor tottered in his chair, trying desperately to stay awake as his Rock made him some coffee. He smiled, stifling a yawn, as he got what he desired at last.

"Thank you, Rock." he stared at the mug sleepily. He hoped it would actually make it to his mouth before he collapsed.

"I've been meaning to ask you," Proto Man began, all the while polishing his shield. "Why do you drink black coffee?"

"I need something strong to stimulate the senses, I guess. It's all I can do while we wait for Bass to get back."

"Me and Rock can go over and take down Trap Man if you want..."

"Once Bass is seen to be okay, then you two can go." Dr. Light seemed to be adamant on this point.

"You do realize that Bass would want us all _dead_ , right? That includes me, Rock, Roll, you, and if he ever finds him, Rush."

Proto Man looked exasperated with his creator and his overabundance of patience with this known enemy.

"Perhaps..."

"What?"

The man opened his mouth to speak again, but was stopped by a returning Bass, busy cackling away.

"B-Bass! What's gotten into you, and... Just... How?!"

He crackled with electricity as honey covered him from head to toe. A gooey piece of what was probably the Robot Master was tossed on the floor in front of the other boys. He looked at them all darkly.

" You... You don't want to know... "

Everybody stared at him with open mouths. He toddled over a ways before collapsing on the ground and shutting down.

"BASS!" Rock screamed. Roll, who had just came in upon hearing the commotion, didn't have much better of a reaction.

Dr. Light shot a look at his two creations. "Rock, Blues, go and deal with Trap Man while I fix Bass."

The doctor's eldest creation was outraged. "You're fixing him when he could easily kill us all?"

"It doesn't matter. He's still a robot, and I'm going to take care of him!"

"Do you care about _us_ at all?" Proto Man sounded hurt for once. The Blue Bomber, on the other hand, was inching towards the teleporter, clearly uncomfortable with the situation.

"Of course I do!" Dr Light rarely got angry like this. "Bass just needs my attention right now, that's all!"

Proto Man looked like he would cry if he was capable of it. "Why don't you just build Wily's next capsule for him while you're at it. He could certainly use help taking over the world!"

"STOP!" Roll screamed, horrified at the argument. All eyes present fell on her.

"I don't like Bass any more than you do, Blues. He's just plain mean, among many other things. There are also risks involved in fixing him. But we need to do it, because right now, we're responsible for him."

The cool robot growled. "I wonder what Rock thinks..."

He trailed off upon realizing that his brother had taken off.

 **Ancient Castle: 9:00 p.m.**

The robot loved his family. He really did. He just couldn't stand to see them argue. That was almost as scary to him as the giant castle now looming over him, complete with thunder and lightning. Bracing himself, he walked in, not knowing what awaited him...

The place, except for some torches littered about, was nearly pitch black. Lightning flashed in the background sometimes, helping to light up the area naturally.

He quickly found out that he had to use the light he was given to avoid many, _many_ pits strewn about.

Chains lifted planks that provided the way upwards. It added to the creepy atmosphere.

Shade Man would have loved this place.

Occasionally, the platforms tipped over to reveal a bed of spikes at the bottom of the castle. He had to hang onto the chains to stay in one piece.

Eventually, the platforms led to a sitting room area. The couch in it turned into a spiked monster and chased the Blue Bomber around the room.

He was very much terrified, but still fought off the monster. The victory was eventually won, leading it to fall to its destruction off of a wooden platform.

The next section had him swinging on what were essentially hangman's nooses. He didn't want to really think about that.

He finally made it up to the boss's chamber. A master bedroom that looked really old opened to him on its own.

"Come in, Child."

An old man's voice. The body that owned the voice was in fact an old man, just robotic and with a cane.

"Is there any way you could give up, sir? I'm having a really bad day today." Mega Man looked like he would have just left had that been an option.

The man shook his head in pity. "As you know, I am Trap Man, and no, I am bound by my own programming to fight you. I'm sorry. Let's just have a good match. Perhaps you can finish me quickly..."

The man walked away into the shadows, with the room transforming into a suitable battle arena.

A series of deadly spike traps appeared, making Mega Man work to dodge them. A button then appeared on the wall. He pressed it, apparently hurting the Robot Master, as he heard the associated scream of pain.

The next course required him to work around a net of lasers to get to the button again.

Another scream of pain soon rocked the arena.

The man then came out and personally attacked him. Swatting at the hero with his cane and trying to tie him up with an iron chain simultaneously, the man went on one last attack before falling to his Mega Buster.

"Well done, Child..."

Trap Man's dying words carried a sadness as well as relief to them.

After a moment of silence, the robot took a leftover piece of the enemy to take his power and left.

 **Weapon Get: Trap Chain (lassos in and strangles enemies with a chain)**


	15. Teenage Rebellion!

**In the Secret Lab...**

"Well, I think that we're done here. All of your tinker toys have been beaten. Your plans have been foiled."

"Nobody asked you," The boy glanced back at the cage the other Wily was in. "You haven't even seen Wily Castle Prime yet, anyway."

"Yeah, like I'll actually be impressed. I've built fortresses that have gone all the way to space... literally. What have you done lately?"

"You'll see, old man." The boy rubbed his hands together in villainous delight. "I've already got Rap stationed there. He'll enjoy playing with that overrated edge lord."

"Might I ask what an 'edge lord' is?"

The boy wasn't listening. "Now is the time for me to make my big important series of death threats!"

Dr. Wily would actually be interested to watch how the rest of this kid's floor show would turn out.

 **Dr. Light's Lab: 10:00 p.m.**

Dr Light was actually startled to see his son coming through the teleporter.

It seemed the coffee hadn't rendered him unable to feel tired...

"I'm home. Trap Man's defeated." Rock threw the pieces he had brought home on the floor. "Is Bass okay?"

"Yes."The doctor still held his empty coffee cup in his hand. "Before you ask, Proto Man took off after our little 'dispute'."

"Where is Bass now?"

"I put him in the emergency healing tank. We didn't know how long you would be gone, so we dealt with his severe injuries with the quickest method we had on hand."

"I hope he--"

Rock's voice was cut off by the sound of static coming from the monitor. The feed was taken over by a teenage boy of some sort.

"Greetings, Weaklings. This is the voice of your brilliant and implacable enemy, Dr. Joshua Wily."

"So that's who you were?" the blue robot was more befuddled than anything else. "I guess that saves us the trouble of guessing or searching."

"Indeed, it is I! It is truly a shame that you can't see my fantastic visage, surely one that would strike fear into your heart if you could see it."

The elder scientist looked unimpressed. "I'm not threatened by a somewhat portly teenager dealing out threats he can't substantiate. I'm even less afraid of you than I am of your grandfather."

The boy was clearly disturbed at this. "H-How did you know that Wily was my grandpa?!"

"Because you just told me," The doctor responded, smirking.

The boy then got unnecessarily angry. "You'll... You'll... You'll PAY for this insult!"

"Isn't it past your bedtime?"

"SHUT UP! Just... Come to my castle. I'll smash your precious 'Mega Man' to pieces there." The boy pounded hard on what looked to be a keyboard. "Bass better show up if he ever wants to see his 'daddy' again!"

"Wait," Rock interrupted. "If Wily's your grandfather, and Bass is his son, then wouldn't Bass be your father?"

The boy made some frustrated noises before concluding. "Get over to my castle already and prepare to DIE!" The feed cut off from there.

"We have the coordinates, at any rate," Dr Light stated. "You can go whenever. Of course, you can wait for Bass, too. Something tells me that this boy isn't going anywhere anytime soon..."

"I don't want to hurt this boy..." The Blue Bomber sounded worried.

"You most likely won't have to touch him to stop his plans. He's probably more scared of you than you are of him."

"I'm going with you." Bass strolled by, apparently in mint condition. That pod really worked.

He wordlessly walked towards the teleporter and went through. After a nod from his father, Rock followed.


	16. Home Invasion!

**Wily Castle Prime: 10:15 p.m.**

Mega Man touched down at the given coordinates... only for his mouth to fall wide open at what he saw.

Quickly pulling up the good doctor up via hologram (thankfully, he didn't need Rush to do this anymore, as it had been recently integrated into his programming), he merely had to turn it around to show the doctor what was in front of him.

"Oh..." Dr. Light sat there in stunned silence before falling out of his chair laughing.

Mega Man didn't blame him. It was hard not to laugh at the haphazardly thrown together mess that called itself a "castle", when in reality it was a mangled apartment building that had metallic tubing running through it and a hastily constructed, grotesque skull plopped on top of it.

"Hey everyone, it's Mega Man!"

Someone from the crowd circled all around him and the building shouted it. Chants of his name followed.

He never did do very well at PR conferences for this very kind of thing. He was just doing his job. He didn't need a parade in his honor...

Of course, that didn't stop some people...

Shyly waving at the populace, he strolled in. The front door had already been busted open, presumably by Bass.

A wooden entryway awaited him. He might have walked over it without a second thought if it wasn't dotted with spikes. More confused than anything, he made his way to an intercom at the wall next to an elevator. He clicked the button and a message played. It was Joshua

"Welcome to Mechanix Homes Apartment Number 103-B, otherwise known as YOUR DOOM! If you are not named Mega Man, Bass, or Proto Man, then SCRAM! Do mind the spiked entry way on your way out."

The robot wasn't quite sure what to make of this.

"If your names ARE as mentioned above, then PREPARE TO DIE! Before I make you explode into multiple appropriately colored outward fanning bubbles of energy, I feel that you should know that since I can't seem to make the elevators here one-way, you can take a break and come back at any time should you get stuck on a floor."

 _That's_ _nice of_ _him_ , Mega Man thought.

"I am a fair man, after all. Now, take the elevator up and PERISH!" The message ended there.

"Okay, then..."

Mega Man did as instructed, with the typical sort of ominous music that Dr. Wily used for his castles functioning as elevator music here.

 **Section 1...** The elevator opened to reveal a maze of bottomless pits. Lifts with obvious drop points were the only ground bridging the gap of infinite blackness between the place where he was standing and the other side of the room.

"How is this even possible?" He wondered aloud as he made his way through the lift sequences. This shouldn't have been possible on the _second_ _floor_ of an apartment building!

It didn't help that there were flying enemies of various kinds to dodge around. Thankfully, the Honeycomb Drone was useful in dispatching them.

Once the chasm was cleared, there were very few obstacles remaining. A few scattered enemies from the journey so far met him in combat only to be bested with minimal effort by the hero.

"Now, Mega Man," the voice of the boy behind all of this echoed throughout the room. "Face the incredible power of my mighty Super Sakugarne!"

A giant pogo stick blasted through the wall, jumping high to try and crush Mega Man.

Stepping out of the way, the toy left a huge crack in the floor. After avoiding a couple more attacks, the robot noticed an eye-like mark on its front, near the handles. Utilizing the Fit Flip to dodge, he honed in a few charge shots at its weak point. Upon dying, it tried to ram him one last time while on fire. The blue hero dodged that one, allowing the thing to fall into the bottomless abyss he just passed over.

"Are you going to give up, now?"

He was hoping that Joshua heard him. He had.

"Never! You've beaten but ONE of my creations! Go to the next floor, and I'll show you what _true_ terror is all about!"

Sighing, he hit the button for the elevator.

Unbeknownst to everyone there, a familiar face was looking out from another rooftop towards the building. He grimaced in determination before warping away.


	17. Frenemy Mine!

**Wily Castle Prime, Section 2...**

After a short elevator ride, the Blue Bomber found himself looking up at a series of ladders.

Mega Man was a nice guy, but this boy was really starting to wear on him...

Unfortunately for the hero, he found out that this week's obstacles consisted of a series of lasers that gunned for any sudden movement.

Why couldn't one of the weapons he got have made him invulnerable?

Alternating sets of lasers went off as he slowly worked his way up. Occasionally, the ladders would turn red hot, forcing him off to another section. It caught him off guard the first time, burning him. Learning the pattern didn't make it fun, though.

"I guess a proclivity for stupidly bizarre and dangerous puzzles runs in the family..."

Eventually, the segment ended, leading to an ice section. A _long_ ice section.

After a long, tedious section lined with swarms of bee enemies (of course) he reached the end of the section... as well as his own sanity.

"Aren't you tired of this?" Mega Man asked, bent over with his hands on his knees. His deactivation clock was going to be absolutely wrecked for the next few days...

"Tired?" The teenager's yawn echoed throughout the building. "This is nothing! I could do this all night, so there!"

"Why can't you be more agreeable, like your grandpa when it comes to the timing of your schemes?"

I'm better than _he_ ever was!"

"I'm sure you are. Now what's your big thing?"

"It's your _doom_ , by the hand of your dear friend!"

Mega Man braced himself to see a brainwashed Proto Man, only to get a very sane Bass instead.

He wanted to feel betrayed at least partially, but along with the tiredness, he had deep down known throughout all of this that Bass would remain his enemy... Why had he believed anything different? Proto Man was right... wasn't he?

"After all we've been through..."

"That was just business, Mega Man. We'll always be enemies. It has to be like this."

Was it just him, or did Bass sound almost sad when he said that?

"However," Bass continued, producing an Energy Tank. "I need you at full strength to fight you."

Didn't Bass usually like to kick Mega Man when he was down? Why let him heal at all and make his job harder?

"Thanks?" He drank up the tank greedily.

The evil robot struck a fighting pose. "Save your gratitude for the GRAVE!"

He reluctantly struck a fighting pose of his own. "I guess I'm disappointed in you, too..."

The fight started out with the two combatants feeling each other out. A bunch of jumping, dashing, and sliding.

Bass didn't pull his punches once he really got started. The pellets came fast and furious, which the hero dodged before returning fire with a charge shot.

"Pathetic." Bass evaded the attack before using the Trap Chain to catch Mega Man's buster. He then yanked the chain and slammed the heroic robot to the ground.

Mega Man grunted in pain, looking up to see Bass, who looked quite annoyed, actually.

"This is the kind of fight I get? This is what the 'World Famous Blue Bomber' is capable of? The only reason why Wily hasn't taken over the world by now is because he's so utterly idiotic!"

"You shouldn't talk about your father that way..."

"Ha! You're losing and you have the nerve to open your mouth about _me_? If I were in your position, I would be a far better hero than you would ever be!"

Bass may have been grinding his foot against the side of his skull, but Mega Man heard every word of that sentence.

"What did you just say...?"

"You heard me! I said that I would be a far..." The black and purple robot trailed off upon realizing what he'd said. He kicked the hero across the room. "N-Nothing! Now prepare to die!"

Bass started spraying special weapons haphazardly, trying to silence Mega Man. All strategy was thrown out the window.

A smirk was on Mega Man's face as he sidestepped the barrage. "I knew it!"

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" A spray of Cheese Whiz came his way.

"Dr. Light was right about you." He got caught by the yellow goo, but didn't care too much at the moment.

"He was dead wrong! I'm evil to the core!"

"Bad guys usually don't have to advertise like that..."

Bass stopped firing altogether and rushed him with his fists. He wailed on him as if he could beat the knowing smile off his face.

"You know, Wily didn't have to give you free will..."

"I will kill you, Mega Man! I'll prove that I'M the strongest robot around!"

"Maybe one day there will be robots that can actually think and feel completely of their own accord, kind of like us, but better..."

"Stop talking nonsense and DIE!" He punched more furiously than ever.

Closing his eyes and bracing for impact, he soon opened them to find Bass on the other side of the room instead of on top of him.

"Huh?"

He found Proto Man standing over him, offering him a hand to help him up. "You're going to tell me that he's a hero, right?"

He tossed him another E-Tank. "You'll need this."

Mega Man drank it. "I don't understand..."

"Just let it be, bro. He's the bad guy, and that's all there is to it." His tone was curt, not allowing any further argument.

The blue hero looked over to see that Bass had already fled.

"Now that the chicken's left the building," Proto Man said. "Shall we go on?"

 **In the Secret Lab...**

"What was that?!" the boy raged, tossing away his chair.

"I don't know," Wily muttered. "But I think I'll need to reprogram Bass later on. He's starting to... feel things."

"Who cares?!" The boy pumped his fist triumphantly. "Your empire _will_ be mine, anyway!"


	18. Epic Rap Battles of History!

**Wily Castle Prime, Section 3...**

The two brothers headed up to the next floor. Of course, Joshua had something waiting for them.

"Invisible floors over a bed of spikes. This is just stupid." Mega Man could only nod in agreement.

What followed was a very annoying tiptoe across the way, watching for any gaps as they went.

"Are we going to get done with this sometime within in the next _century_?"

Trying to look on the bright side, the Blue Bomber said, "At least, he was considerate enough not to force us to fight any enemies here..."

"Yay..." The red robot was clearly unenthused.

The pathway ended with another intercom. Mega Man clicked the button.

"I have something for you... You've managed to get quite far. I'm impressed."

"Impressed enough to give yourself up?" The blue hero ventured.

"No. But I _am_ impressed enough to give you some company. My own 'special robot'. Come and greet our guests, Rap!"

The hooded robot walked out the into the open. A grin was plastered on his face. "Sunglasses! Long time, no see! You even managed to bring in the hero..." He glanced at Mega Man for once. In response, the blue hero jumped back and aimed at him with his buster.

"Leave him to me," Proto Man said quickly. "He's mine."

"Why?"

"I have a few things I owe him. Just head up!"

Nodding in agreement, the Blue Bomber took off for the elevator.

Proto Man turned back to his enemy, who was waving his golden chain around, snickering.

"Ready to bite it, twerp?"

Wordlessly, the red hero took his trademark shield off of its clip on his back and held his palm out in a "bring it" gesture.

Rap then disappeared from existence, only to reappear with his elbow in his opponent's chest.

The hero gurgled in pain, only to find himself with a knee to the same general area. He then was blown away by a gold wave of energy conjured by the robot's hand.

"You're nothing, Pretty Boy. I'll show you why!"

He walked up to Proto Man to kick him in the head as his fellow Wily bot had done to his brother earlier, only to get his leg grabbed and himself sent to the floor.

Proto Man managed to roll away and leap to a standing position with one swift movement.

"You'll have to do better than that."

Seething, Rap sent his gold chain right for him. Proto Man slid under it and flung his shield which hit its target's face before returning to its owner like a boomerang.

"You know, you could just give up..."

The hero's suggestion went unheeded as the villain looked in horror at his newly marred paint job. "YOU'RE AS GOOD AS DEAD!"

The evil robot jumped up before pounding the ground with his chain, creating golden shock waves along the ground. Some fancy footwork and sliding was all that was necessary to avoid them.

"Is that all you've got, you narcissistic baby? I've seen toasters with more fight than you." The taunting was used specifically to throw Rap further off his game.

And boy, did it work!

"I'm gonna cave that stupid little face of yours in!"

Rap dove for him, but he easily got out of the way. He needed to buy some time to charge up a shot...

"Still haven't touched me yet," Proto Man called out to his enemy, who quickly made another dive for him. It didn't succeed. "Was it your plan to actually hit me at some point?"

"Get ready," Rap said, growling as purple energy swirled around him. "Because I'm gonna be sending you straight to a closed-casket FUNERAL!"

He leapt up at Proto Man, roaring in pure rage, only to land on top of the scarfed hero's buster. His fully charged buster.

He found that he couldn't get loose, as the momentum of the fall jammed the buster in his stomach.

Rap fought to get free in vain. Proto Man smirked as he released the shot, sending a violent explosion ringing throughout the apartment.


	19. Wily Machine Prime!

**Wily Castle Prime, Section 4…**

While all of this was happening, Mega Man had made his way up to the next floor, only to be confronted with a gauntlet of familiar faces.

"If it isn't Private Mega Man…"

"I knew you'd _bree_ back…"

"My claws are going to cut you into tiny little pieces, okay?"

It indeed was every Robot Master that had been dealt with throughout this entire adventure. He wasn't surprised about that, as that was par for the course. What was shocking, however, was seeing them all in one place not separated by teleporters, but in the same room.

He was surrounded.

Of course, Joshua used this opportunity to gloat. "You'll be happy to know that I didn't leave you out of the fun, Mega Man! In my brilliant mind, I figured that you two would split up. I'd been watching the whole thing all this time, in fact. You think it wasn't blindingly obvious that Bass would choose to betray you instead of hopping onto your side as your permanent 'best buddy'? Pure child's play! For your entertainment however, I've taken the liberty of bringing back quite a few old friends from this little adventure. I'm sure you'll be delighted to learn that they've been completely rebuilt from the ground up to be absolutely invincible! Enjoy your horrible, flaming death!"

What followed was a nightmarish melee in which the blue hero was on the losing end.

He didn't even get an attack in as he was mobbed by Robot Masters from all sides. If this had been his usual song and dance with the elder Wily, he would have been able to pick apart the weaknesses of each enemy one by one to handily defeat them all.

In this situation, there was no chance of that happening.

He found himself alternating between chugging Energy Tanks to stay alive and desperately dodging and swatting away what he could with his arm cannon.

"You can't run away, coward!" Grizzly Man savagely slashed him when he tried to slide away from him at one point.

Cheese Man glued him to the floor with a super sticky sort of Cheese Whiz. The eight enemies then surrounded him proper, standing over him with a nice mixture of malicious and triumphant grins on their faces, excluding Trap Man, who looked more resigned than anything.

"Time to terminate you, Mega Man." Soldier Man charged up a Soldier C4, and the hero closed his eyes in anticipation of the inevitable…

"Wait. Why do you get to finish him off? The mighty Mega Man deserves to be cut to pieces by my claws."

"What are you talking about, Pooh? If there's anyone he deserves to be diced, sliced, and shredded by, it's me!"

An argument ensued. Only Mega Man noticed the sudden spike in temperature in the split second. The cheese burned and stiffened enough for him to snap it off and back away just before…

BOOM!

A massive explosion and corresponding curtain of flame came up from below and torched all of the Robot Masters before they could realize what was coming.

Proto Man!

"WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS THAT?!"

Joshua was clearly freaking out at this point.

Staring at the rising plume of smoke, Mega Man had to speak up.

"Please, Joshua! Give up! I need to rescue my brother! I need to…"

"SHUT UP!" He roared through the intercom, barely comprehensible. "I'LL MAKE SURE YOU BOTH DIE HERE!"

Mega Man only felt horror as he noticed what seemed to be an earthquake, followed by a massive blast that sounded close by.

"What are you… "

The apartment suddenly had its roof cut off by a laser. What appeared in the newly revealed night sky was what was probably intended to be a Wily Machine. In actuality, it looked like a hastily shoved together tank made of scrap metal with hands and a skull plastered on top. It was actually taller than the house itself.

"Now, you'll fall to Wily Machine Prime!"

The machine launched bombs at the hero that were quickly neutralized by the Soldier C4 and the Tour Lens.

"Stupid brat!" The machine swung its fists at Mega Man, trying to crush him, he dodged, but the apartment was now critically damaged, it was going to come down.

"I'll cut you to pieces!"

The laser came out again, with a sawblade joining in this time.

Mega Man had to keep moving and returning fire to the giant gem on the robot's chest. He tried to talk some sense into his opponent as he did so.

"Can't you see that you're hurting people? You don't have to do this!"

"I'm a Wily. It's what I do!" There was resentment in that voice.

"It doesn't have to be!" Mega Man cut some approaching chains with the Grizzly Slash. "You could do so much more with your life!"

"Like what? Go into hiding, like my folks? You get off so easily because you're Mega Man, created by that ever-benevolent Santa in a lab coat known as Dr. Light!"

He couldn't deny that. "Maybe, but Proto Man chose his own path, and so could you!"

"But he's still a hero. Me and my parents are nothing! People want _us_ dead because we're associated with that old man by our last name!"

"This is making it worse! What would your parents think about all of this?!"

"SHUT UP!" The younger Wily sounded like he was crying as he kept swatting away at him.

The fists kept coming and missing as Mega Man got off charge shot after charge shot. The machine was smoking by this point, surely at critical damage.

"Stop this!"

"Nev—" A shield hit that weak point one last time as the boy was in the middle of his sentence. It was Proto Man's shield.

The giant explosion that followed dwarfed anything that had come before as it engulfed the world around it in flames…


	20. The Final Battle!

**City Streets: 12:30 a.m.** The Blue Bomber opened his eyes to see Proto Man. He was sparking, heavily charred, and it was a wonder he was even still functional, but he was alive.

"Blues…"

"I had to…" an error message came through the red hero's mouth. Then a vocal glitch. "Shield you at the last minute."

He then pointed across the sea of flames that used to be an apartment complex. How many people perished in this?

The charred remains of Proto Man's shield lay there.

"C-Company…"

Mega Man didn't have to guess who it was.

The boy wasn't in his machine anymore, as that was scattered around the surrounding 500 foot radius. The machine's top, which was comprised of a heavily modified minivan, was what he was seated in this time.

The Wily boy was clearly visible through the van's window. This wasn't the arrogant Dr. Wily wannabe that had been issuing this little challenge all the way up to this point, but a traumatized, scared child.

"It's not over yet…" His voice was barely audible and painful to hear.

"I'll _make_ it over." Proto Man half-limped, half-crawled by Mega Man, charging and aiming his buster. "You need to be stopped, Wily, and unlike my brother, I'll stop you even if it involves ending you."

"NO!" Drawing upon what little strength he had left, Rock dove to catch his brother's Buster arm.

"What are you doing?!" A few vocal glitches escaped the elder brother's mouth. "He's not going to stop! He'll turn out just like his grandfather, which you could have killed on more than one occasion when you had the chance!"

He remembered the first instance of that. No amount of firmware updates from Dr. Light could wipe that memory away.

 _"He who hesitates is lost, Mega Man!"_

He looked back into the boy's eyes. His final decision was made at that moment.

"You need to be stopped," Mega Man stared at the boy, determined. "But that's all I'm going to do."

"Then stop me, Mega Man. I don't know how to stop…" There was a pleading moan to the boy's voice as he started up the machine in a rather mechanical fashion.

The final battle was on!

The vehicle only had one weapon. It was a flamethrower rigged from a repurposed exhaust pipe. He fired it at the duo in a variety of ways, from one continuous stream to multiple concentrated blasts.

The duo were so beaten up by this point that they had to physically move each other out of the way in just to dodge anything, which was no easy task…

"I'm sorry… I'm so, so, sorry," Joshua would mumble this as well as, "I'm a monster. Please stop me…"so often during the fight. Mega Man had to force himself to fire on his enemy.

Proto Man broke down and lost consciousness during the fight. To Mega Man's surprise, Joshua didn't kill him while he was down. In fact, he ignored him.

"Stop me quickly. Your brother needs help…"

Joshua's words genuinely disturbed and saddened Mega Man.

A few successful charged shots later, the "capsule" was beginning to explode.

"Joshua, get out of there!" Mega Man panicked as the craft began to sputter to the ground. The boy could clearly feel the craft heating up.

"I've been thinking… Maybe I deserve to die, like Proto Man said. I'll only end up like…"

Mega Man was already running as fast as he was able to toward the ship. "No you won't! The Dr. Wily I know would've killed me while I was unconscious for his own petty sense of self-satisfaction. You didn't do that. There's still some good in you!"

"I've killed so many people…"

Mega Man was under the craft now, weighing his options. "Yes… But you can still make it up to the people who…"

A Chisel Axe projectile came out of nowhere and ruptured the exhaust pipe. It was obvious who it came from.

Bass's interference made an explosion more imminent. He had to think fast, or the he and Joshua would be added to the death toll. Forcing all of his mental processes into overdrive, he decided to take a risk.

He switched to Cheese Whiz and sprayed the craft with all his might.

The cheese encumbered craft wound up falling relatively harmlessly to the ground. Mega Man couldn't get out of the way, as he had nothing left. He just collapsed under the machine's weight. The boy was badly burned himself.

Before losing consciousness himself, he looked at the boy in his semi-conscious state.

"Thank you…" Joshua rasped groggily.


	21. Drawing Conclusions!

**Dr. Light's Lab: 10:00 a.m.**

There were familiar noises around Mega Man as he awoke.

"MEGA MAN, YOU'RE ALIVE!"

Thank goodness!"

Dr. Light and Roll were staring at him from above. He was on an operating table.

"How…?"

"We rushed to the site as soon as we could," Roll answered. "We could barely get by all of the firefighters and police over there!"

He looked for Proto Man as best he could but to no avail.

"Where's Proto Man?"

The scientist spoke up this time. "He had me fix him before you woke up. He wanted to leave as soon as possible, it seems…"

"Why would he do that?"

"Maybe he didn't want you to see him so… vulnerable."

That made sense, actually. Something else came to mind.

"What about Dr. Wily?"

"He escaped at some point. He was nowhere to be found at the scene nor was his body found. He's no doubt concocting his next scheme."

Unbelievable. It seemed that he certainly would never change.

"Joshua is in the local burn unit, screaming his lungs out with his parents while they work out what to do with him. Strangely enough, all of his medical bills have been paid in full without any known payer…"

"Who could have done that?"

The Doctor smiled longingly. "I'd like to think that even after all this time, Albert isn't completely heartless…"

Mega Man would have to think that over. He just couldn't fathom his archenemy doing a genuinely good deed without some hidden strings attached.

"What about Bass?"

"He's gone," Dr. Light sighed. "He hasn't been seen all day."

It was then that Rock decided to air a question that had been bugging him for a while.

"Dr. Light? Am I destined to be enemies with everything that Wily makes?"

There was a pain in the old man's sigh. "I suppose that Blues told you such. I personally don't believe that. If the Robot Masters can be put to good uses, so can any other robot. I long for the day to come when you or any robot of mine would make friends with one of Wily's robots. Robots aren't designed evil, after all." He changed the subject. "By the way, guess who's back from an upgrade!"

Rush didn't wait for a formal announcement before practically pouncing on his owner. Laughter filled the whole lab and house as the tired group worked to peel Rush off of him.

 **Wily's Lab…**

Wily worked furiously to reprogram Bass. He would have to scheme well to wash away the stench of his last not-so-evil deed.

"That boy better not say that I never did anything for him…" He glared at the unconscious robot in his tank. "And you're never making friends with anything of Thomas's. Wily is the enemy of Light. Plain and simple."

 _Both men's words would prove prophetic just a hundred years later, when their greatest inventions would continue the fight… The fight for everlasting peace that would continue for hundreds of years._

 _But those are "Mega Man Legends" for another day…_

 **A little later, at a nearby hospital…**

Roy and Martha Wily didn't know what to think as they awaited news in the waiting room about their badly burned son. Anger was one emotion they felt. Grief was another. But who to be angry at?

A call came to the woman, Martha. It was _him_.

"You can thank me later for paying for your son."

"I'll make you pay, all right!" The woman screeched, frail as she was. " _You_ sent my son down this path, and now he's almost _dead_ because of you!"

"Is that any way to talk to your _father_ , Martha?"

"You're absolutely _nothing_ to me! Now get off of this phone and never contact us again or… or… I'll…"

"You'll _what_?"

Roy grabbed the phone. "We'll destroy you and everything you've built ourselves."

A twisted chuckle came from the other end. "Yeah, right!"

The woman looked at the man. A silent decision was made.

"You _will_ regret this call. We'll make sure of it."

The man hung up and broke down in tears. The wife followed suit.

Revenge would be theirs…

 **END**

 **Happy 30th Birthday, Mega Man!**


End file.
